Terrilynn Monette - LOCATED DECEASED

[LadyBlue]

NEW ORLEANS - Nearly three months after she went missing, the search for Terrilynn Monette continues. Her family is back in New Orleans and they're pleading with the public for help.

“This terrible situation has caused our family so much pain,” said Monette’s mother, Toni Enclade.

“Not a day goes by that I don't think about her,” said sister Kandiss Enclade.

Jefferson Parish teacher Terrilynn Monette has been missing for nearly 11 weeks. Her family returned to New Orleans Friday, making a plea with police outside one of the last spots Monette was seen.

“Please help me find my baby,” said Enclade.

Police say they have no leads at this point, and calls to Crimestoppers have slowed. They are hoping anyone with information will come forward to help them break the case.

“What people have got to remember is they don't know what little piece of info they may have held for no reason than they didn't remember and that little piece of info could mean all the different in the world,” said New Orleans Police Chief Serpas.

Monette was last seen in the early morning hours of Saturday, March 2. Police believe she was driving home from Parlay's Dream Lounge in Lakeview. A traffic camera captured her making a left turn onto Marconi from Harrison. Monette, and her black Honda Accord, haven't been seen since.

While Monette has been entered into a national missing persons database, her mother, and state representative Austin Badon, D-New Orleans, are calling for an expanded nationwide search.

“My mother's day was not the same. She always bought me cards and wrote beautiful words in those cards. This mother's day, I didn't get a card from her,” said Enclade.

Officials have combed nearby City Park. They've pulled 17 cars from Bayou St. John.

Police have investigated the VIN numbers on each vehicle. Some were reported stolen in Orleans and other parishes. Police are following up on those. Other vehicles had deteriorated so much, police were unable to locate a VIN number.

Nonetheless, none of those vehicles belonged to Monette.

Badon, who spearheaded the effort, plans have six more cars pulled from the bayou. Two of them appear to be newer models, like Monette's.

“We had to make sure we didn't leave any stone unturned,” said Badon.

Monette has a three month old niece she has never met.

And on their third time in from California since Monette went missing her family hopes this will be the time they find her.

Monette's family will be in town through Sunday night. They'll attend a vigil Saturday at 6 p.m. on Harrison Avenue and Marconi Drive.

If you have any information on Monette's whereabouts, call Crimestoppers at 504-822-1111.
www.wwltv.com/news/Mother-of-missing-teacher-Please-help-me-find-my-baby-207965991.html

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[LadyBlue]

FBI involved in search for Terrilynn Monette

NEW ORLEANS -- It has been almost three months since Terrilynn Monette, a Jefferson Parish school teacher, disappeared after a night out at Lakeview bar and as her mother continues to hope.

Authorities are continuing their search efforts. Monette's family from California was in New Orleans this weekend. They want the search for the 26-year-old teacher to expand to a national level.

Monette was last seen on a traffic camera at around 5 a.m. on March 2 turning onto Marconi Drive from Harrison Avenue in 2012 black Honda Accord.

State Representative Austin Badon got the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries to search New Orleans waterways and wooded areas of eastern New Orleans where cars are commonly dumped and the Texas-based organization EquuSearch has already search Bayou St. John.

Now the FBI is involved in the search.

“Shortly after the disappearance,” said Assistant Special Agent in Charge John Selleck said, “we began offering assistance and began working collaboratively with the New Orleans Police Department.

“We do officially have a matter open in the FBI, but the primary jurisdiction still remains with NOPD. We find it is more effective when we pair up very closely with our counterparts, rather than working separately.”

Over a dozen cars have been pulled from Bayou St. John in the search for Monette’s black Honda. So far there has been no sign of it.
www.wwltv.com/news/FBI-involved-in-search-for-Terrilynn-Monette-208234131.html

[LadyBlue]

Missing Louisiana teacher's car found with body inside

A car with a body inside believed to be that of missing teacher Terrilynn Monette was found Saturday in a bayou in New Orleans, authorities said.

The car and body were found in Bayou St. John by a diver with the Slidell Police Department, who volunteered to dive the waterways in the search for Monette, Detective Daniel Seuzeneau of the Slidell Police Department, said.

The body is believed to be that of Monette, he said in an e-mail statement to CNN.

Monette, 26, was last seen March 2 leaving Parlay's Dream Lounge in New Orleans, where she had been celebrating with friends her nomination for a "Teacher of the Year" award.

Monette's mother, Toni Enclade, told CNN that investigators have notified her the car has been found, but not whether the body is her daughter.

"To know that she could have possibly been there for three months," she said, overcome with emotion.

Enclade said she does not know when she will be given a definitive answer by authorities.

"I can't even begin to go there right now," she said. "I'm in shock. I can't believe this. I just can't believe this."

Authorities have focused a large part of their search efforts on the waterways because Monette would have had to have driven across the bayou to get from the bar to her home.

In mid-March, an independent search and rescue team from Texas volunteer to comb the lagoons and waterways.

It discovered a car in the bayou, but it was later confirmed not to belong to Monette.

Family and friends of Monette put up a billboard in New Orleans and created a Facebook page, "We Love You Terrilynn Monette," to help generate tips in the search for Monette.

The diver who found the car and body, Slidell Police Officer Mark Michaud, has been "working closely with the Monette family" because of his expertise in diving recoveries, Seuzeneau said.

When Monette, of Long Beach, California, learned of the "teachNOLA" program, which sends educators to New Orleans to teach in impoverished areas, she packed her bags and headed to Louisiana.

"I always wanted to be a teacher, and what better place to teach than New Orleans, where passionate teachers are needed most?" she said in a 2011 video obtained by CNN affiliate WDSU.

In her first year of teaching second grade at Woodland West Elementary School, Monette turned one of the lowest-performing classes into one of the highest achieving.

It earned her a "Teacher of the Year" nomination in her school district.
www.cnn.com/2013/06/08/us/louisiana-missing-teacher/index.html